CRYPTO: Infidelity (Book 1)

CHAPTER 45: MISFORTUNE

In the morning, we packed all our things and headed out, but made the mistake of taking the elevator.

"Everybody, stay calm," Rockie said.

"It's okay. There should be a way to call for help when the elevator isn't operating," I said.

Uncle Blade gripped the bar attached to the wall as if the elevator was about to drop suddenly.

I looked at the buttons and found the red button to call for help. I pressed it, but nothing happened.

"What happened?" Uncle Blade asked.

"Nothing happened," I said. "It didn't work."

"You know why this is happening? Why we're stuck here?" Rockie asked me. "Because you brought a curse on us when you ripped up that bible!"

"Don't be ridiculous," I said.

Rockie pounded on the elevator door. "Can anyone hear me?! Let us out!"

"Rockie, calm down. This is a five-star hotel. It won't take them long to figure out their elevator isn't working," I told him.

"Maybe you're supposed to hold the button down longer," Uncle Blade said. He pressed the red button for a few seconds, but nothing happened. He pressed it again, but for even longer, then he started pressing it multiple times and harder.

"Stop. You're going to break it," I told him.

"It's already broken!" Uncle Blade said.

Rockie pried the elevator doors open. The floor was near the top of the doors and Rockie leaped up onto it. The elevator doors automatically shut.

"Forget this! I'm going with him!" Uncle Blade said. He opened the doors and attempted to jump up to the floor, but only managed to get his front end up. The elevator doors shut on his rear, but they weren't strong enough to hurt him.

"Crypto, hold the doors open!" my uncle ordered me.

"Why? It's not like it makes much of a difference," I said.

Rockie helped Uncle Blade up and the doors were able to shut all the way. Rockie opened the doors a couple of inches.

"Aren't you comin', Crypto?" he asked.

"What's the rush?" I asked. "You guys are acting as if the elevator is about to-"

The elevator jerked down a couple of inches which was enough to scare me out of my wits. I pushed through the doors and leaped up onto the floor while I still had the chance. I didn't even need any help up. The adrenaline was enough to get my whole body out of there.

"That was a close one," Rockie said.

"It's fine," I said, pretending like I wasn't fazed. "See? The elevator isn't going anywhere."

"You're not scared?" my uncle asked. "Maybe you should go back in and grab our luggage then."

"Maybe it's best if we get a worker," I said.

"Agreed," Rockie said.

After we obtained our luggage, we went to the restaurant inside the hotel to grab some breakfast. They were out of what I wanted so I got something else instead.

"Figures they would be out of the one thing you wanted," Rockie said.

"It's fine. They have plenty of other breakfast options that I'd probably like," I said.

The waiter brought our food and, when I reached over to grab my plate, I knocked over a full glass of water. It soaked the entire table, including the napkins, and even poured over the edges onto Rockie and Uncle Blade.

"Sorry about that," the waiter apologized.

"No, it's my fault," I said.

"I'll get some towels," he said. He jogged to the kitchen.

Rockie gave me a look.

"Don't give me that look. It's just water," I said. "It's fine."

"Yeah, but how often do you knock over cups of water?" he asked.

"Please don't turn this into a conspiracy."

At the end of the meal, we got a receipt that showed just how much the meals were. It was a lot more expensive than we were expecting.

"Can you put this on the card we used to buy the hotel room?" Rockie asked the waiter.

"Sorry. We can't do that. That card was only used to pay for a certain number of days. It expired today."

"Figures," Rockie said. "I guess we'll have to split the bill between the three of us."

After paying, we discussed what we wanted to do to kill the time until it was time to go to the airport. We decided we would just walk around and avoid spending any extra money.

We left the hotel and walked around just as tourists, observing the large old buildings and window shopping.